I am working on a windows store app, one of the workflows within the app would allow the user to export a report in html format. The html report relies on a css file so I would like to ensure that the install process could deploy the file in a local folder. If not I would need to read out the file from the assets folder (within the install bundle) and manually write it out but that seems pretty kludgy
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/uwp/api/Windows.Storage.KnownFolders?view=winrt-22000
mentions that "The Documents library is not intended for general use." so would require use through file picker but I would prefer to be able to export the document without user intervention without additional store approval headaches (apparently adding Documents library capability to manifest requires additional Microsoft store approval).
Questions
When I create files within the store app it seems the location options are limited and I can only write to Localfolder (which is actually hidden and users cannot easily get to it) - There must be a way to create a file within the MyDocuments directory that is easily accessible by users but looks like that is off limits to a windows store app? So what is the best approach to write reports to storage that can be easily accessed by users
How can one deploy files to a specific directory during install time? Assuming there are some installer commands/manifest directives that would allow this capability?
Or maybe there is a entirely different mechanism to allow for this functionality within the store app and I am just looking in all the wrong places...
Related
I am building a chrome app for Digital Signage where I need the user to select some files from a particular folder (preferably in the app's directory) i.e audio, videos, photos which should be created by the app on install.
The sample code provided by Google requires that the user navigates to a folder like this
chrome.fileSystem.chooseEntry({type: 'openDirectory'}, function(theEntry) {
if (!theEntry) {
output.textContent = 'No Directory selected.';
return;
}
// use local storage to retain access to this file
chrome.storage.local.set({'chosenFile': chrome.fileSystem.retainEntry(theEntry)});
loadDirEntry(theEntry);
});
However, my app simply needs the name of files in that (say Video) known directory for the user to build a playlist, rather than actually selecting a video file.
Is this supported in chrome.fileSystem API? Any pointers to how I cold get this done?
It sounds like you should be using either the app's sandboxed file systems, or the app's install folder itself.
The sandboxed file systems allow the app to store whatever data it wants, in whatever structure it wants. There are two to choose from: persistent or temporary. Temporary may be cleared at any point in time. To use these check out this article. Some of its code may be out of date with the spec. Note also apps need to request the unlimitedStorage to use these.
The install folder itself can be used in a read only way. To do this you use chrome.runtime.getPackageDirectoryEntry.
I have some data for a webapp that I would like to store on the server. What would be a good location to put those files?
I have a couple of static HTML pages that contain instance specific information. They need to survive a re-deploy of the webapp. They need to be editable by the server's administrator. They are included in other HTML pages using the html object tag.
I want to store preferences on the server, but cannot use a database. I am using JSP to write and read the preferences. There is no sensitive data in the preferences. Currently I am using the log directory. But obviously that is not a great choice.
I am using Tomcat. I thought of creating an appdata/myapp directory under the webapp directory. Is that good or bad?
If the server's administrator can also deploy the app, I would add the data file itself into the source control for the app, and deploy it all together. This way you get revision control of the data, and you get the ability to revert to known good data if the server fails.
If the administrator can't deploy the app, but can only edit the file, then you need plans to back up that file in the case that the server or server filesystem dies.
A third solution would be a hybrid: put the app in one source code repository. Put the data in a second source code repository. The administrator can edit the data and deploy the data. The developer can edit the app source code, and deploy the source code. This way, both are revision controlled, but you've separated responsibility for who maintains what.
I have a Air/Flex desktop application and I'm trying to create a component within the app that can view files on the web server is is already connected to. It just needs to access one particular folder that will contain PDFs, Images & Word documents. I also want the ability to click on the files and having them open in their default desktop applications.
Is this possible and how would I go about doing this?
It's possible but not with your Flex/AIR app alone. It cannot view files/directories on server by itself but it can communicate with your server via webservices, AMF, or any other back end based service. Typically the back end reads the folder and send this information to your app. Your app can open those files in corresponding app but only if those files are available on disk so your app will have to download them prior to opening them.
Every Application has different needs but I myself usually save anything to a desktop or you can use the App storage container as well. As I use only the desktop I download what is needed OR been asked for, and the visitor has the choice of keeping it or if not needed it gets automatically deleted! this way you can use whatever PDFs, Word, Images etc. use read and write (re-write) as well as creating PDFs on the fly with Images, text etc, and that way a visitor also can print directly at his or her own leisure. regards aktell
I'm building a Store App using WinJS and I need to create a structure with some info related the user's tree folder (every drive, not only C:), is there any way to get the whole Folder structure from every drive without using the File/FolderPicker?
No, by design Windows Store Apps run inside an app container that limits what they're allowed to do without user consent. The only areas of storage that are openly accessible without further consent are the app's package location (which is read-only, see [Windows.ApplicationModel.Package.Current.installedLocation][1]) and its app data folders (see Windows.Storage.ApplicationData).
If the app declares library access in its manifest (for Pictures, Videos, and Music), these are noted on the app's page in the Store such that the act of installing the app amounts to user consent. There is also a RemovableStorage library that's similar, but for that you have to declare specific file types.
If an app is registered for a file type association in its manifest, and the user launches the app through a file, that grants access.
Beyond this, the way you get access to any other storage location is through the pickers. However, if you have the user pick once, you can save that consent by saving the StorageFolder into the Windows.Storage.AccessCache API, so that you can open the folder again in an future app session without having to reacquire consent.
For all the details of this, refer to the first section of Chapter 11, "The Story of State, Part 2: User Data," of my free ebook, Programming Windows Store Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, Second Edition.
I am familiar with the regular properties APIs for storing app-specific metadata to a file, but is there any way I can store App metadata within drive without linking it to a specific file?
I would prefer to store some configuration settings, but the only approach I've seen for this so far has been to create an actual file in GDrive (and hope the user doesn't delete it).
Is there a more stable approach?
You can store a configuration in you Application Data Folder on Google Drive.
More infos in the actual documentations, but a quick explanation is that you can store files in an hidden folder visible only by your application (any application using the same api key share the same AppData folder).
For example I store a text file with the settings of an Android application, when the user installs it on a different device, the settings are downloaded to the new device.
The approach using a file to store settings let you keep track of the changes made on the configuration by using versions, but if you are more keen to use properties, you can still create an empty app.config file and store properties on it.